Are cheat/spike days a mistake? Scared to try it

Cheat days are a slippery slope for me. I find I do better when I just keep everything in moderation, not denying myself the foods I love love love. I track everything honestly and that keeps me accountable. For me, a cheat day feels like an excuse to binge and that's too counterproductive in my opinion. Good Luck!!!

Spike Day's are nothing but a huge positive, BUT I do believe that everyone is different and it's your choice if you want to do it or not. Your not wrong if you don't, it just makes things a heck of a lot easier.

It's not so much your body adjusting to a calorie number ex 1,200. What happens is that whenever you have a calorie deficit, and the studies done are 7 days of calorie restriction, the hormone leptin drops. When leptin drops cravings go up, in fact there was a definite correlation between the amount of leptin that is reduced and the amount of hunger, and of course the metabolism starts to slow. Personally I believe it takes sometime, weeks or months before the metabolism decline is totally detrimental, there's no proof, but for me personally I could diet for 4-6 weeks before I would usually hit that plateau. I think the hunger and cravings that begin increasing at 7 days is the biggest problem. It makes it difficult to stay on a diet when your fighting your brain.

This is where "spiking" really helps, as it just takes 12 hours of eating a surplus to bring leptin levels back up.

I feel this change happen to me every week. I Spike on Friday's, by Thursday of every week I feel the cravings coming on strong. Then I Spike and I literally don't care what I eat the next few days. Then as the week goes on I feel them come back right before I Spike again.

Also, what's needed is a small surplus, nothing overly crazy. If you burned 2,500 calories a day, 2,501 would be enough, I just aim a bit higher to make sure I'm over so I use 2X(BMR) so at the most you would store 1,000 calories that is always distributed to your glycogen stores first, before any fat is actually stored.

Just remember, you definitely gain a few pounds after Spiking, it's simply because our body stores 3 grams of water with each gram of glycogen in your muscles. You burn that off in the next couple of days when you go back to calorie deficits.

I've been doing this 8+ years.

Cheat Days
SPike Days
Off Days

Phenominal Way to stay the course. 1 Day does nothing. And as you can read above its really good for you.
Its just changing the way of thinking. Funny you can make yourself physically feel bad about eating some large portions.
I plan for it, then crush it! My workouts are awesome for it!

DO IT. DOUBLE YOUR CALS! LOL Feels so good

Exactly, I'm literally stronger the day after spiking and my endurance is unreal. So of course I plan my biggest workout the next day. I call it my "After-Spike" workout.

Cheat Days
SPike Days
Off Days

Phenominal Way to stay the course. 1 Day does nothing. And as you can read above its really good for you.
Its just changing the way of thinking. Funny you can make yourself physically feel bad about eating some large portions.
I plan for it, then crush it! My workouts are awesome for it!

DO IT. DOUBLE YOUR CALS! LOL Feels so good

Exactly, I'm literally stronger the day after spiking and my endurance is unreal. So of course I plan my biggest workout the next day. I call it my "After-Spike" workout.

4TK caught me on a no carb 2 week cutter. Basicly laughed at me. since then I have enjoyed fasting and spiking.
I spike Sat-Sun-Mon. My first week. Blasted Chest today

LOVE IT! Keep educating Russell!!! ITS NEEDED

Thanks man!
The next thing I'm going to try is go really low carb, the day before I spike, and then also add 30-45 minutes of some cardio the morning before I start spiking.

The idea is it will no doubt completely drain my glycogen stores and make my spike day even more effective. Apparently this will cause my body to increase my storage capacity there.

I'm starting in February, I did try it one week last month and I lost 3lbs in 24 hours, again leading me to the conclusion that glycogen was totally gone since I would have lost 3 grams per gram of glycogen stored.

The above isn't for everyone, I'd say it's great for experienced lifters because it was extremely difficult to go no carb at the end of the week and my morning cardio was ridiculously difficult. Basically I hated it, but it worked.

Cheat days have been good for me. When I began trying to lose weight I tried putting myself on a strict diet... Eventually I found that this ultimately ended in a week long binge/feeling sorry for myself party. Having a cheat day or free meal once a week has definitely helped me avoid the dark side. Haha! I feel like I'm not depriving myself of the things that I want to eat. I also believe that it keeps your metabolism out of the everyday same diet funk!

I do it about one a week...sometime 2 or 3 times...works for me

I don't have a cheat day but just a cheat meal once a week as long as I have worked out and done well with my calories. It makes me work harder during the week to "earn" my cheat meal.

why live if you cant have a cheat day?? i lost 80lbs so far and i do have those days where i just want to let loose of the chains .. i am still alive and still losing weight . my cheating is more controlled when i plan it . if i dont plan it then i find myself knee deep in food with no exit plan !! sometimes i will even do extra cardio the day before ,of or after but thats only sometimes

Spike Day's are nothing but a huge positive, BUT I do believe that everyone is different and it's your choice if you want to do it or not. Your not wrong if you don't, it just makes things a heck of a lot easier.

It's not so much your body adjusting to a calorie number ex 1,200. What happens is that whenever you have a calorie deficit, and the studies done are 7 days of calorie restriction, the hormone leptin drops. When leptin drops cravings go up, in fact there was a definite correlation between the amount of leptin that is reduced and the amount of hunger, and of course the metabolism starts to slow. Personally I believe it takes sometime, weeks or months before the metabolism decline is totally detrimental, there's no proof, but for me personally I could diet for 4-6 weeks before I would usually hit that plateau. I think the hunger and cravings that begin increasing at 7 days is the biggest problem. It makes it difficult to stay on a diet when your fighting your brain.

This is where "spiking" really helps, as it just takes 12 hours of eating a surplus to bring leptin levels back up.

I feel this change happen to me every week. I Spike on Friday's, by Thursday of every week I feel the cravings coming on strong. Then I Spike and I literally don't care what I eat the next few days. Then as the week goes on I feel them come back right before I Spike again.

Also, what's needed is a small surplus, nothing overly crazy. If you burned 2,500 calories a day, 2,501 would be enough, I just aim a bit higher to make sure I'm over so I use 2X(BMR) so at the most you would store 1,000 calories that is always distributed to your glycogen stores first, before any fat is actually stored.

Just remember, you definitely gain a few pounds after Spiking, it's simply because our body stores 3 grams of water with each gram of glycogen in your muscles. You burn that off in the next couple of days when you go back to calorie deficits.

I've been doing this 8+ years.

You're half right. Leptin does control appetite, but it does not control metabolic rate. A cheat meal may be good for you mentally, and may help reduce craving, but it won't do anything for metabolism.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15534430
http://jcem.endojournals.org/content/82/12/4149.abstract

I do Saturdays. I find that it helps me manage cravings. And because I so rarely eat sweets and "bad" foods, I can eat much less of them on my cheat day and feel satisfied. I have a lot more energy for a few days and it starts waning about Thursday. It helps my sanity to not have to think as much about food one day a week. I am still careful, because nobody should sit down and eat a whole pizza or pecan pie, but I do allow some of the more decadent foods to be eaten that day in smaller portions. I really try to avoid all the sweets as much as I can because of my insulin resistance, but I dont beat myself up that day if I do. And I havent had it negatively affect my progress..... if anything, it has helped me stay on the wagon.